Clive's
UndergrounD Line Guides

Lifts
and Escalators

[last modified 2014-11-15]

Introduction

This page gives detailed information on the lifts and escalators to be found
on the Underground. It does not cover DLR or Tramlink equipment because I do not
have the relevant information. Lifts and escalators generally connect lines to
each other or to the surface. Therefore they cannot, in general, be allocated to
individual lines. Thus the list just shows individual stations, and does not
attempt to go into any further detail.

At each station, the lifts and escalators are numbered (in two separate
series of numbers). The numbers are usually displayed at the ends of the
escalators.

Lifts and escalators normally go down towards the platforms. In a few cases
the platforms are above street level and the service goes the other way; these
are shown by ^ after the station name. Where they run in both directions, it is
shown by # after the name.

Further information about lifts and escalators is included on a
separate page.

History

The early Underground lines were all on or just below the surface,
and stairs were sufficient for passengers.
However, the first tubes were far too deep to expect
passengers to walk up and down, and so lifts were installed,
many stations surviving in
their original form to the present day (though none of the equipment is
original). The commonest arrangement was to place two lifts in a 7m (23') shaft
and have either one or two lift shafts, though in some places a 9.1m (30') shaft
was used that could accomodate three lifts, and Bank had individual shafts for
each lift. The earliest lifts moved at about 0.6m/s (120' per minute), but these
were gradually replaced by ones with higher speeds, 2.5m/s (500' per minute)
being common and 4.1m/s (800' per minute) not being unknown.

Lifts had two disadvantages:
they bunched the free flow of passengers into separate carloads and,
until automation became practical, each one required an attendant
(though he could sell or check tickets at quieter stations).
Both of these problems were addressed by the invention of the escalator in 1892.
The technology was not mature enough for use during the early days of
tube line construction but,
once it was,
the underground railways took to it with joy.
Unlike lifts, escalators allowed a free flow of passengers, could be left
unattended, and acted as their own emergency staircases rather than requiring
separate ones to be provided.

The first escalator-like device on the Underground was the experimental
"Reno double spiral continuous moving track" briefly installed in a
shaft at Holloway Road intended for, but never used for, additional lifts.
Information about this is difficult to find - although once reported as
almost ready for use, it was either never actually used or else only used on the
opening day (1906-12-15) - but some of the parts have come to light and
can be seen at the London Transport Museum "Depot" at Acton.
It had a rise of 10.7m (35') and ran at about 0.5m/s (100' per minute).
The two spirals both ran clockwise and were nested, the upwards one inside the
downwards one;
the overall diameter was about 7m (23').
Unlike modern escalators where the treads return to their starting point
along the bottom of the machine,
a single set of treads were used for both directions;
at top and bottom the connecting track ran under the flooring, meaning
that passengers could not stay on for a round trip.
(It is not clear whether there was either a shunt or comb arrangement -
see below - at these points.)
The journey would take 43
seconds upwards, 47 downwards.
Incidentally, a similar spiral, 30m (100') tall,
had been installed at the Earl's Court Exposition from 1902 to 1906, and another
contemporary design (never used on the Underground) placed the two spirals side
by side with tangent horizontal sections linking them.

The first pair of true escalators (Otis type A) were installed at Earl's
Court on 1911-10-04. They were of the "shunt" type where a diagonal
barrier forced users off to the side at the end of their ride (the top of "down"
escalators also had such a barrier so that they could be reversed if necessary).
A total of 22 type A machines were installed, with one at Liverpool Street
surviving until 1953 (Liverpool Street was also the first station to rely on
escalators rather than lifts to provide the main access to the platforms).
However, no doubt to the relief of users, the shunt style gave way to the
modern "comb" arrangement.
The first comb was installed at Clapham
Common on 1924-12-01 as part of a batch of 65 Otis type LHD (nearly all of these
have been modernized and are still in service) and all subsequent machines have
had combs, though existing shunts remained in place for many years, possibly as
late as 1953.

There was initial public fear of, and thus resistance to, escalators. To
counter this, the clerk of works for the installation - a one-legged man known
as "Bumper" Harris - rode up and down all day to show how easy they
were to use (Harris was subsequently to make considerable wealth and retire to
Gloucester to make cider and violins). Nevertheless some people remained
skeptical, thinking they knew how he had lost his other leg. On the other hand,
the newspapers reported that some passengers were breaking their journey at
Earl's Court just to ride the escalator.

Because of their convenience, from 1912 until 1987 almost all new stations
used escalators rather than lifts, and for the same reason many stations have
been converted - Angel is the most recent example. Because escalators are angled
while lifts are vertical, such conversion requires significant tunnelling, both
for the shaft and for new connecting passages because one or both endpoints have
moved.
In the case of Angel, advantage was taken of this to replace the surface
station with a new one about 100m nearer the commercial centre of the area.
Similarly, the conversions of Green Park
and Hyde Park Corner moved the entrances enough that Down Street (sited between
them) could reasonably be closed.
While there were some stations where the layout meant an escalator shaft had to be
driven through an erstwhile lift shaft, equally there are many where the latter
remained untouched after conversion.
The most common use of such shafts was to hold emergency staircases.
One much less common use is found at St.Paul's, where the former lift shaft
first held the wartime headquarters of the Central Electricity Board and more
recently became the logistics hub and storage depot for track renewals on the
Central Line.

Traffic on "down" escalators tends to form a fairly steady stream,
but that on "up" escalators tends to come in batches as each
train arrives and so, in an attempt to save energy and reduce wear, some
were run at half speed until a photocell detected passengers and triggered
an increase to full speed.
This technique (later used on a few short "down" escalators as well)
was first used in 1934 and finally abandoned in 1974 as being uneconomic.

During World War II "down" escalators were stopped in quiet
periods. Additionally, two escalators were removed (one from St. Paul's and
the other from Holborn; the former was never replaced) for use at an underground
factory at Corsham. An escalator intended for the upper flight at Highgate was
used to replace one at Bank destroyed in bombing on 1941-01-11.

When the DLR was opened in 1987, most stations were close enough to ground
level not to need escalators. However, lifts were included at every station to
make the system wheelchair-accessible. Since then all new stations have been
fitted with both lifts for step-free access and escalators for mass use.

The most successful escalator design was the Otis type M. The oldest of
these date back to 1932 (those at Manor House and Wood Green are still in
service). The MY variety was for rises up to 15m (50') and the MH variety for up
to 27m (90'). Upgrades of these (indicated by suffixes) are still used in new
installations, though some MY types have been replaced by the HD family. One
escalator (Embankment number 7) is fitted with glass sides so that the workings
can be viewed by the public (from the eastbound District Line platform).

King's Cross

On 1987-11-18 a fire started, probably from a dropped cigarette, underneath
number 4 escalator at King's Cross St. Pancras. No effective measures were
taken while there was time to do so; the fire spread to the wooden side panels
of the escalator, and then a flashover incinerated the entire escalator shaft
and the ticket hall above. A total of 31 people were killed. Although the
escalator was fitted with water-fog apparatus that could have doused the fire
or, if used regularly, washed away the fluff and grease that ignited, lack of
effective management meant that it was not used.

As a result, smoking was completely banned on the system and at underground
stations on other railways, and a large amount of money and effort has since
been put into fire safety.

The LHD-M crisis

On 1999-08-12 there was an incident on escalator 4 at Oxford Circus where it
allegedly stopped and then slipped backwards. Following this a programme of
inspections of LHD-M escalators was set up, and on 1999-09-24 cracked drive
shafts were found on two machines. All LHD-Ms were therefore taken out of
service from about 15:00 that day. This caused various station closures during
that month:

Fri 24th

Sat 25th

Sun 26th

Tue 28th

Wed 29th

Thu 30th

Balham

pm

eve

all

most

Clapham Common

pm

eve

all

most

Clapham North

pm

all

am

pm

all

most

Clapham South

pm

am

Colliers Wood

pm

am

pm

all

am

Old Street

eve

all

am

Oval

pm

pm

all

most

Piccadilly Circus

eve

early

Shepherd's Bush (3)

eve

all

early

South Wimbledon

pm

am

pm

all

am

Stockwell

eve

Tooting Bec

pm

am

pm

all

am

Tooting Broadway

pm

am

eve

early

Tottenham Court Road

eve

early

am

=

opened between the two peak periods

pm

=

closed between the two peak periods

=

open all day

early

=

open by morning rush hour

eve

=

closed after evening rush hour

most

=

opened after evening rush hour

Since then most work on the LHD-Ms was done without closing stations,
though South Wimbledon did have to be closed for several weeks. A second set of
problems, this time with MY-As, led to further closures during early 2000.

The 2002/3 Firefighters' strike

In late 2002 the Fire Brigades Union declared a series of strikes. LU
decided that, while the lack of fire service cover was not a problem in general,
there would be a significant risk if a lift failed with passengers in and then
there was a fire. Therefore they decided that no lifts would operate during
strike periods and those deep tube platforms that could only be practically
reached by lifts would be closed, with trains not stopping.

Shadwell(1) was closed in the peak hours (07:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to
19:00) on Mondays to Fridays, but open at all other times.

Piccadilly Line trains did not stop at Gloucester Road.

Bakerloo Line trains terminated at Waterloo, with no service from there to
Elephant & Castle.

Northern Line trains that would normally terminate at Kennington either
terminated at Waterloo or continued to Stockwell.

The actual strikes took place as follows:

2002-11-13 at 18:00
(Wednesday)

to

2002-11-15 at 18:00
(Friday)

Chalk Farm and Holloway Road actually closed at 19:33. For
much of this strike there was no service on the Circle Line, the Piccadilly Line
east of Hammersmith, and the Waterloo & City Line. Other lines had problems
because some drivers were refusing to work.

2002-11-22 at 09:00(Friday)

to

2002-11-30 at 09:00(Saturday)

Mornington Crescent had already closed at 07:00 because of
staff shortage.

2002-12-16 at 09:00(Monday)

to

2002-12-24 at 09:00(Tuesday)

Planned but suspended

2003-01-21 at 09:00(Tuesday)

to

2003-01-22 at 09:00(Wednesday)

2003-01-28 at 09:00(Tuesday)

to

2003-01-30 at 09:00(Thursday)

2003-02-01 at 09:00(Saturday)

to

2003-02-03 at 09:00(Monday)

Lifts

The following table gives the situation as at 2006-12-31 plus any subsequent
changes known about.

The following types of lifts are currently in use. Unless stated otherwise,
they are electrically powered.

A code in upper case indicates that the escalator is out of service and
being replaced, possibly with a different type.

In the following table, the type codes are given in lift number order,
starting at number 1 (there is no consistent rule for numbering of lifts, other
than that lifts in the same shaft normally have consecutive numbers). A dash (-)
is used to indicate that that number is not in use. An asterisk (*) following
the type code indicates
that the lift with that number is owned by National Rail and is therefore not
classed as an LU asset.

In most cases, pairs (or sometimes more) of lifts of the same type are
operated with a common mechanism, usually in a single lift shaft. These are
shown by including the type codes in brackets. Where there are side-by-side
shafts between the same endpoints, these are included in <...> pairs.

Acton Town

mm

Bank

-[aaaa]gg

Belsize Park

-<d[dd]>

Bermondsey

j

Blackfriars

tt

Borough

[oo]

Brixton

mm

Caledonian Road

--[aa]

Canada Water

jjjj

Canary Wharf (2)

jjj

Canning Town

#

jjj

Cannon Street

tt

Canonbury

??

Chalk Farm

[aa]

Covent Garden

<[DD][dd]>

Dalston Junction

?

Earl's Court

--[dd]mm

East Ham

mm

Edgware

jj

Edgware Road (2)

[jj]

Elephant & Castle

<[d-][dd]>[aa]

Euston Square

mm

Farringdon

ttttt

Finchley Central

mm

Fulham Broadway

mm

Golders Green

^

jj

Goodge Street

<[dd][dd]>

Gloucester Road

--[dd]

Greenford

^

z

Green Park

kkkjjj

Haggerston

^

??

Haggerston

^

??

Hainault

^

mmp

Hammersmith (2)

ll

Harrow & Wealdstone

q*q*q*q*

Hampstead

<[bb][bb]>

Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3

ett

Hendon Central

m

Highbury & Islington

??

Hillingdon

^

hh

Holland Park

[dd]

Holloway Road

[dd]

Hounslow East

^

mm

Hoxton

^

??

Kennington

[oo]

Kilburn

^

m

King's Cross St. Pancras

mmm??mmm?mm

Kingsbury

??

Lambeth North

[dd]

Lancaster Gate

[dd]

London Bridge

?*jjj

Morden

mm

Mornington Crescent

[aa]

North Greenwich

jjjj

Oakwood

m

Paddington

??

Pinner

mm

Queensway

[cc]

Regent's Park

[cc]

Russell Square

[ddd]

Shadwell (1)

[oo]

Shoreditch High Street

^

??

Southfields

?

Southwark

jj

Stratford

?*?*?*ii ????? ????? rr

Tottenham Hale

n

Tufnell Park

[dd]

Walthamstow Central

mp

Wapping

[oo]

Waterloo

?*jj?

Wembley Park

mmmmm

West Ham

#

jj-m

Westminster

jjjjj

Wood Lane (2)

^

<jj><jj>

Escalators

The following table gives the situation as at 2006-12-31 plus any subsequent
changes known about.

The following types of escalator are currently in use. All are electrically
powered.

Manufacturer

Type

Code

Otis

HD-B

a

Otis

HD-C

b

Otis

LHD-M

c

Otis

Unknown

d

Otis

MH

e

Otis

MH-A

f

Otis

MH-B

g

Otis

MY

h

Otis

MY-A

i

Ascinter Otis

RA-C

j

O&K

RTV Compact

k

O&K

LUL1

l

O&K

LUL2

m

O&K

LUL2J

n

O&K

RTHD

o

O&K

RTHDM4

p

Kone

HTE3

µ

Kone

Unknown

q

Kone

PSX

r

APV Baker

PH

s

APV Baker

PH-T

§

APV Baker

PS

t

APV Baker

PSX

u

CNIM

34L

v

CNIM

76L

w

CNIM

RTP1

x

CNIM

RTP2

y

CNIM

RTP3A

z

J.E. Hall

þ

(out of use and walled up)

Unknown type being installed

¿

Unknown type

?

A code in upper case indicates that the escalator is out of service and
being replaced, possibly with a different type.

There are two angles of escalator shaft. The standard arrangement is for
both shaft and machine to be at an angle of 30° (9m vertical climb per 18m
of length). However, those shafts that originally contained type A machines,
plus two other parallel shafts at Liverpool Street and Oxford Circus, are at an
angle of 26°23' (8m vertical climb per 18m of length) with otherwise
standard escalators modified to climb at that angle[2].
Normal running speed for escalators is for the steps to move at 0.737m/s (145'
per minute); since the vertical speed is half this for a 30° slope, it can
be seen that escalators take much longer than lifts to climb the same distance.

In the following table, the type codes are given in escalator number order,
starting at number 1. The following codes are also used:

-

number not used

/

number used for a fixed staircase

*

not known whether number unused or used for a staircase

:

narrow unnumbered stairway

\

unnumbered stairway the same width as an escalator

~

unnumbered stairway wider than an escalator

=

very wide gap (unnumbered)

◊

space used for an inclined lift

+

covered over gap and supports left for a future escalator (unnumbered)

The codes are arranged in groups using the following notation:

[...]

escalators in the same shaft or otherwise parallel and sharing physical
infrastructure

(...)

escalators in the same 26°23' shaft, including individual escalators
with their own shaft

<...>

closely spaced parallel shafts connecting the same endpoints

{...}

special situation described at the bottom of the main table

To reduce confusion the codes representing escalators numbered 10 or 20 are
underlined.

It may seem curious to number fixed staircases as if they were escalators,
and even odder to note that only some staircases are so numbered. However, these
staircases are arranged in such a way that they can be reasonably easily
converted to escalators (such as King's Cross St. Pancras 2 or Brixton 2,
where new escalators were installed in 2002 after staircases had been there for
many years).

Escalators in the same shaft, or in parallel shafts, are numbered from left
to right when looking upwards. For many years there was a policy of numbering
the escalators at a station - or at least those installed at the same time -
from the lowest bottom end upwards, but this rule has a number of exceptions and
appears to have been abandoned in the last few years (for example, it applies at
West Ham and Canary Wharf, but not at Warren Street and Canada Water).

[2] Some sources claim that, in some
cases where an escalator is installed in a type A shaft, the lower landing is
moved slightly to allow an angle of 27°18' (11m vertical climb per 24m of
length). It has not been possible to definitely confirm or deny this. The claim
has been made for type MY-A at Baker Street and type HD-B at various locations.

Alperton

^

--þ

Angel

[vvv][www]

Archway

[aa]

Baker Street

(ii)[ii][ii]

Balham

[c/c]

Bank

[mmm][mm][pp][p:p][p:p][µ:µ][µ:µ]

Bermondsey

[lll]

Bethnal Green

[yyy]

Blackfriars

----¿¿¿¿

Blackhorse Road

[f/f]

Bond Street

[cc][iii][iii]

Bounds Green

[g/g]

Brixton

[iai]

Camden Town

[cc]

Canada Water

[l=l][ll][l=l][l=l]

Canary Wharf (2)

[l=l][l=l][l=l][l=l]l[lll=ll][+l=ll][l=l+]l

Canning Town

#

[kk][kk][ll][ll][ll]

Chancery Lane

[t/t][asa]

Charing Cross

[C/C]{[i/i][iii]}[iii]*

Clapham Common

[c/c]

Clapham North

[cc]

Clapham South

[c/c]

Colliers Wood

[c/c]

Earl's Court

(aa)[h/h]

Embankment

{(a)(a)(a)(a)cc}ccaa

Euston

[ff][ff][ii][ii]

Gants Hill

[yyy]

Greenford

^

[?~◊]

Green Park

[sss][fff][iti][ii]

Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3

[jj][jj]{jj/}

Highbury & Islington

[i/i]

Highgate

[g/g]{-g}

Holborn

[aaa][bbbb]

Hyde Park Corner

[b/b]

Kentish Town

[uu]

Kilburn Park

(a\a)

King's Cross St. Pancras

[uru][sss][iri][aaa][aaa][aa=aa][¿¿]

Knightsbridge

[s§s][s/s]

Leicester Square

[ggg][ggg]

Liverpool Street

<(a)(a)(t)>[aaa][ttt]

London Bridge

-----[ll][nn][fff][nnn][n=-n][nn][nnn]

Maida Vale

(a\a)

Manor House

[srs]

Marble Arch

[b/b]

Marylebone

[e/e]

Moorgate

[aa]ii[ii]

North Greenwich

{r=ll}llllll{r}

Notting Hill Gate

[xx][y/y][y/y]

Old Street

[cc]z

Oval

[cc]

Oxford Circus

{(dd)(d)}[cc]i[ii][ii][ii][ii]

Paddington

(a\a)

Piccadilly Circus

[ccc][ccc]<[cc][ccc]>

Pimlico

[f/f]

Rotherhithe

[aa/]

Seven Sisters

[i/i][ff]

Shepherd's Bush (3)

[aa]

Sloane Square

rr

South Kensington

[jjj][jj]

South Wimbledon

[c/c]

Southgate

[a/a]

Southwark

[lll]<lll>[:ll]

St. John's Wood

[g/g]

St. Paul's

[a/a][gg/]

Stockwell

[cc][/i]

Stratford

qq[dd][dd]

Swiss Cottage

[h/h]

Tooting Bec

{[c/c]}

Tooting Broadway

[ccc]

Tottenham Court Road

[cc][ccc]a

Tottenham Hale

[f/f]

Turnpike Lane

[aaa]

Vauxhall

[iri]

Victoria

[fff][iui]

Walthamstow Central

[i/i]

Wanstead

[z/z]

Warren Street

[t/t][sfs][f/f]

Warwick Avenue

(a\a)

Waterloo

[ccc][g/g][ff][ggg][ooo]<[nn][nn]>[lll][lll]

West Ham

[lll]l[ll]

Westminster

[lll][ll][ll][lll][lll][ll][ll]

Wood Green

[srs]

Charing Cross: numbers 4 to 9 lead to the disused Jubilee Line
platforms and are behind locked doors.

Embankment: each of the pairs 1/2, 3/4, and 5/6 links a platform to
the main circulating area, but are much wider apart than would be implied by the
<...> notation; one escalator is dedicated to upwards movement and one to
downwards. The normal numbering convention applies to these pairs.

Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, & 3: escalators 5 and 6, and staircase
7, are in the same shaft. However, looking up from the bottom, the numbering is
7, 5, 6 from left to right.

Highgate: a single shaft was built for escalators 4 and 5, but the
former was never installed and that half of the shaft has now been blocked up.

North Greenwich: escalator 10 is in the same block as 1 to 3;
the order is 10, 1, 2, 3 from left to right looking upwards from the bottom.
Number 10 was on the site of a fixed staircase, and number 1 originally
ran from the bottom only to an intermediate landing
(and was an O&K LUL1).

Oxford Circus:
Escalators 1 to 3 are installed at 30 degrees in a 26°23' shaft.

Tooting Bec: the escalators are not numbered; a member of staff
stated that number 1 is on the right looking up from the bottom.

Moving walkways ("Travolators")

Two stations have moving walkways installed (the term "Travolator"
is a trade name of Otis). These are similar to escalators but do not have a
vertical drop between the "steps".

Two Otis Travolators
- in engineering terms they were essentially elongated Otis MY escalators -
were installed at Bank on 1960-09-27 to connect the
Waterloo & City Line platforms to the Central Line booking hall.
Number 2 was taken out of use on 2000-07-16 and replaced by a CNIM machine,
which came into use on 2001-06-25. Number 1 was taken out of use on 2001-06-21
and similarly replaced, coming into use on 2002-06-17.

They are 92.2m (302'6") long and slope at an angle of just over 8 degrees.
Number 1 is on the left when heading upwards.
There is no walkway between them, but there is a parallel shaft that can be
used when neither travolator is moving in the desired direction.
Originally this just contained a ramp, but it was later
fitted with short flights of steps between shallower ramps.

Two O&K moving walkways ("passenger conveyors") were installed
at Waterloo on 1999-09-24 to connect the Jubilee Line platforms to the Northern
and Bakerloo Line ones. They are level; further details are not yet available.
Number 1 is on the north side (on the left when travelling towards the Jubilee
Line) and there is a walkway between the two.